And the chicks are doing well.  But still eating us out of house and home!  They are now into their third tonne of feed!  I had worked it out that they would go through 2 tonne before they got to 18 weeks and point of lay, but they are still eating as if there's no tomorrow!

I'm sorry I'm a bit out of date here, but I had my daughter and her family come up from Kent, all together for the first time ever!  so I've been busy this past 2 weeks cleaning and cooking to make it really nice for them.  I can relax now as they went home Sunday morning.  There were 9 of us here, so it was a bit hectic!

Although the hatchery said the chicks are all hens, it looks like we have at least 3 cockerels in there, judging by their size, combs and wattles, but hubby thinks there may be more from the size of them!  I don't mind, as they will go in the pot, but I don't want too many!

They don't fit on my scales now, so hubby is going to make me a platform then I can weigh them on his big turkey scales.  That's if I can get them to stand still long enough!  

It was very cold here over the weekend.  The hose that takes the water into the big henhouse was frozen, so hubby puts the bell drinkers in the run until the water melts, but I went out to the hospital Sunday morning, and the bell drinker INSIDE the shed was frozen too!  so that night it must have been really cold!

If I can get them weighed later on today, I'll add it to this posting, and I'll get an updated photo put on here too.  I don't now if this lot were a bit of a mixture, but I was told Amberlinks were white, but most of these chicks or pullets as I must get used to calling them now, have varying degrees of brown featthers.  They look good though, and it means they don't all look alike!

Well, we had a weigh in, and most of them are between 1.5 and almost 2kgs and at 15 weeks they should weigh 1.28 to 1.35, so they are well over.  I called the hatchery yesterday and they said not to put them on a diet, as it could affect the eggs once they start to lay.  However, being a bit overweight means they'll have good reserves and should lay some nice big eggs once they come into lay!

Let's see how I do with getting some pics on here now!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This next one has just started to be feather pecked.  You can see it on her tail.  But look at her markings!  That's strange, I put a pic on here, then the words above it and the picture has disappeared!!  Try again!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another one with quite dark markings!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this is the bigger of the 3 cockerels